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I carry hot gloves, helmet with face shield, and long sleeve FR shirt on the truck. All category 1. I put them on when I feel endangered such as when pulling a meter. If I have to wear category 2 and above, find yourself another boy. I'm not taking any chances this close to retirement.

I forgot to mention that I purposely wear a uniform shirt that is all cotton. It was extreme difficult to find a uniform shirt that wasn't some percentage of polyester which as we know will melt to your skin if you are exposed to an arc flash. Safety first. (My eyeglasses are safety rated, too)

I think NFPA is afraid of being sued so they are making it almost impossible to do anything.

The great miracle of the United States is that anybody can sue anybody for anything. That's why NFPA includes this disclaimer:

"The NFPA disclaims liability for any personal injury, property or other damages of any nature whatsoever, whether special, indirect, consequential or compensatory, directly or indirectly resulting from the publication, use of, or reliance on NFPA Standards. The NFPA also makes no guaranty or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein."

The great miracle of the United States is that anybody can sue anybody for anything. That's why NFPA includes this disclaimer:

"The NFPA disclaims liability for any personal injury, property or other damages of any nature whatsoever, whether special, indirect, consequential or compensatory, directly or indirectly resulting from the publication, use of, or reliance on NFPA Standards. The NFPA also makes no guaranty or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein."

You do understand that in court such a statement has little or no standing.

it is like those signs at the grocery store claiming the store is not responsible for damage caused by carts in the parking lot. It might be true, but it is not because they posted a sign disclaiming liability.

We have arc flash ratings labeled on our switch gears and one of them say 40.38 cal. Should we buy a 50 cal? And anything pass 40 cal ( even if it's that .38 ) is that pretty much a major kaboom ?

Yep, big ba da boom. Instead of worrying about a better suit you should look at mitigation, usually very simple to do. I'm going to guess here and assume the main breaker for this gear does not have INST protection, in which case adding a maintenance switch is a simple solution.

The other thing is that the arc blast is unpredictable, where as the IE is readily calculated, although the reality is that the IE calculation produces a worst case scenario that you might never come close to actually having.

One might think that the more IE you have the worse the arc blast will be, but it does not appear that is necessarily true.